Blue-Heron-Bluffs
Registered: 02/22/11
Posts: 3
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| | 01/31/12 at 06:36 PM | Reply with quote | #1 |
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| I'm interested in learning about any truffles native to the North Country woods. I'd like to dabble in this if possible. Does Cornell offer any classes or information regarding this? Are there any known commercial sources of truffles (again native to the northeast). |
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kwm2
Registered: 10/22/10
Posts: 24
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| | 02/01/12 at 12:47 PM | Reply with quote | #2 |
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Cultivation of truffles in North America has been the holy grail, a lucrative but rarely achieved goal, that has persisted in the US for decades, maybe longer. Most of the worlds truffle production is in Spain, Italy and France. Truffles are the most difficult of fungi to cultivate. There are perhaps (only) several successful truffieres (Truffle farms) in the southeast US, but I'm only sure about one of them - Tennessee Truffles (http://tennesseetruffle.com/shop/), which I hope to visit in a few weeks, Truffles (Tuber. sp) are mycorrhizal on the roots of certain species of trees (hazelnut and oak), so the process begins with purchasing pre inoculated seedlings from a nursery that specializes in this, like Garland Truffles in North Carolina. Once these tree is planted it takes about 6 years or more for it to begin producing truffles (the underground spore producing fruiting body of the fungus). Without very exacting site conditions (soil type, pH, etc.) the fungus usually dies before it has a chance to fruit. There is research being conducted at the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry, but Johanes Bruhn there, I believe it may still be in the formative stage. None the less, he is probably the foremost truffle researcher in North America. I'm even less familiar with the situation on the west coast, but I think University of Oregon (Randy Molina) may have been successful. One last point, there are several species of the truffle fungus (Tuber sp.) in North America, but none are considered as fine and are as valuable as the Perigord truffel (Tuber melanosporum) native to southern Europe.
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Kenneth W. Mudge
Associate Professor of Horticulture, Cornell University
Director of Cornell Forest Farming Program |
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